Amy Reusch

Was Balanchine gentle?

But why isn't anyone bringing up the point that it's much harder for young artists in NYC to hang out together now than in the 70s because it's so much harder for them to afford housing? In the 70s NYC was going bankrupt and apartments were pretty darn cheap. Dancers could afford to take 3 classes a day and pay their rent waiting on tables at night. Who has time to hang out when they're paying more than 50 percent of their income on housing? Or is this hang out only for rich kids? I hope Baryshnikov works in some sort of subsidized housing fellowships for his young artists. Or is this center to be some sort of extra curricular activity for students already in housing subsidized by other institutions.

I don't think that's quite what Leigh said. I believe quite a bit of the best art was done on dancers not quite as good as what is now available at the top companies. In fact, I truly think, sometimes choreographing on really good dancers blinds the choreographer to weaknesses in the choreography that would have been glaring on weaker dancers. I think there are some masterpieces out there that are almost dancer-proof. Of course, I've never known great dancers to ruin a masterpiece, or have I???

I don't think any or at least many of those top-of-the-line modern dancers who have college degrees started dance at 22. They might not have been paid until they graduated from college, but I'm sure most of them to be good enough to be accepted into the better college departments were not rote beginners at their admission. I realize that's not what you're saying, but I want to pin you down. Is it really true that anyone with a chance of getting into a good company has always gotten into a company by age 22? I admit any principal has already shown their potential by then, but aren't there exceptions to that rule? Wasn't von Aroldingen one of them? Aren't there a few more?

Still in ballet this problem persists? A shame. I think in modern dance it is a very different situation... there are some fabulous modern dancers who went to college... I mean really top of the line modern dancers... I wonder if in ballet, it's begun to change at the regional level? There is the occasional regional principal or soloist with a college degree... although they're probably mostly male.

I really think something is about to emerge from the university scene, Alexandra. With all the aging baby boomers, and the difficult fiscal climate, universities offer serious subsistence opportunities... no, wait, way better than subsistence.... Perhaps it just my age, but it seems like so many people I know in the arts who would never have considered it 15 years ago are all now either in or chasing university positions... Has there ever before been quite the flight to university dance departments (except perhaps in the early Bennington days?) of serious talent that we're seeing now? I don't know that it's happening in the ballet world to the extent it is in the modern. We've had so many years of "don't think, dear, just do" in ballet that there isn't the crop of ambitious young choreographers that modern turns up... or is it just the authoritarian style of ballet training that squelches and doesn't reward the creative spirit? That's an old issue, but the exit from the cities to the universities is not. And of course, Mel, I didn't think Baryshnikov invented the idea of a salon... it's just that perhaps he's the first artist to pump $2 Million of his own into it with plans of attracting how much more?

Hi vagans Mom, you must have posted while I composing! Regarding the choreography for the Sugarplum... I didn't mind it, although I felt she underplayed it.. it was a bit blurred with lack of accent in places, but I blamed that on the dancer not the choreography. There were, however, several times in other spots where I felt the dancers looked a bit rushed. I found myself wondering if it was a height thing. Shorter dancers seem to prefer choreographing things that they themselves do well (or so it often seemed in class with various short teachers), tending more toward fast footwork than slow line-demanding adagio. Kirk Peterson isn't terribly tall. Did you find this as well? And while I liked Hidalgo's Arabian, I particularly didn't like her appearence in the first act... she looked like she was trying to do the hootchy cootchy or shake something off of herself... I don't remember the dancer who did it in the premiere looking that way... perhaps the lusciousness in her movement that made her arabian so successful, wasn't right for the sparkling wood sprite. I distinctly got the feeling she didn't "get" the choreography there. Though, I must say, her sudden appearence was wonderfully surprising... there the audience is, all distracted by the dazzling ladybug costume, waiting for her to start dancing, when suddenly, from out of no where, the wood sprite appears. This production should tour. It's production values are Broadway show quality. It's a shame only those near Hartford have a chance to see it. Yes, I love the traditional Nutcracker, and wouldn't want it replaced, but the rest of the world should see this production once.

After so many failed attempts to bring my child to catch the wonder of dance, I took my 4-year-old to see Kirk Peterson's Nutcracker Saturday Evening. I'd seen the production when it premiered, and so I knew the costumes & sets would be spectacular. I wasn't so sure the dancing would be what with there being no local company and students from Hartt school & Dance Connecticut providing the corps, but figured with soloists from ABT's Studio Company it would be better than any other local offering. Wow! Am I ever glad I did! Again, it was spectacular. ABT's Studio Company dancers were far better than I anticipated. (I remember the 1970s with the Joffrey II and what was ABT's old second company named... ballet rep? no... what was it?) Daniel Keene & Bo Busby were truly wonderful with those great soaring leaps in the waltz of the flowers. Watching Michele Wiles turn was sublime , even if she did seem to lose energy a bit in her sugarplum variation. Danny Tidwell had the crowd roaring with his seemingly effortless jumps in Ring of Fire (formerly Chinese/Tea)... and the Shaman/Spirit dance (formerly Arabian/Coffee) was so much better this time than in the first production. I don't know that the choreography changed, but certainly the dancing improved. There are so many wonderful touches in the choreography of the first Act, I found myself laughing regularly. Lotta Crabtree (formerly Clara/Marie) was so well danced by Nicole Jackson; she's quite the actress. I loved her self congratulatory smile in the pantomime scene as she mimed how she had distracted the Boss Rat. I found myself wondering if the board of Hartford Ballet were there and if there were kicking themselves for having ever let go of Mr. Peterson. I wondered if seeing such a beautiful production made them long to once again support a dance company in town. But then, selfishly, I began wondering if this weren't better....that Hartford probably could never afford to maintain a company with dancers this good. At least this way, people get to see ballet at the level it should be performed at, which would inspire greater interest in dance. Generally, the only thing this production lacks is the traditional setting, and a decent Christmas tree. I don't remember now what reason was given for it not being one of those 3-D trees, but considering the rest of the set & costumes, it's a very small flaw. I spent the rest of the weekend shooting another non-traditional Nutcracker, this one for a school company out of Arts-In-Motion in former mill town Willimantic, CT. Here the local city history is referred to in the staging. The family is that of the owners of the thread mill that dominated the town. The battle scene is with frogs instead of rats refering back to an incident that happened shortly after the French & Indian War (a veteran colonel from that war had locals convinced that the indians were about to massacre based on the eerie "war cries" they were hearing... it turned out to be hundreds and hundreds of frogs that had left their pond & wandered out onto the lawns). The 2nd act had winged spools of thread (mother ginger), mill workers (tea?), russian stockyard boys (russian/peppermint), peurto rican immigrant girls (spanish) and valentines (the current town logo is "Romantic Willimantic"). A charming production put together by inspired volunteers, particularly considering the humble demographics the company has to draw upon.... a former mill town with no new industry to drive it, in the midst of a rural setting. It's current moniker, no longer "Thread City" but according to the Hartford Courant "Heroin City". You may be hearing about it on NPR shortly, I understand they're doing a segment on the drug problems of small towns soon.

Pardon me for answering my own question, but I found myself thinking about what difference there might be between Baryshnikov's place & a good dance conservatory/university dept. One answer, perhaps, is the lack of bureaucracy and the freedom that might entail. Regarding this being a vanity plate kind of production, who cares? Does it seem so very dilettante? I wouldn't have thought he qualified as a dilettante (unless you mean it's secondary meaning). The perfume was more that vanity plate thing... ....although, I admit I do like the perfume.

I believe Cunningham mentioned Rauschenberg, not Baryshnikov. I don't believe Rauschenberg is part of it. Cunningham is no puppy himself. It doesn't seem like the advisory panel is young, but then they're the advisory panel, not the subjects(?) of this experiment?

Regarding Cunningham's relationship to ballet, I believe of all the moderns (let's round them off at Graham, Limon, Cunningham, Horton &Wigman), his technique is the easiest phsyically for ballet dancers to transition into, what with it's focus on shape & line, it's very similar to say the Balanchine style of 4 Temperaments or Agon.... mindset-wise, Graham is the closest to ballet's extremes of discipline, but physically it's pretty different. Aesthetically, perhaps Limon follows ballet's fascination with curves and suspence/release (sorry for the malaprop, it's late and I've melted my grey cells shooting frogs battling Nutcrackers for several hours today). It would be great to see more visual arts names mixed in there getting a chance to play. Part of what made the Ballets Russe and Cunningham, for that matter, a phenomenom was their collaboration with visual artists. I worry perhaps a bit about the "youth" focus, the "mentoring" thing.... I suspect this place would be far more fertile if it were indeed more a "hangout" than a potentially patronizing mentoring type thing... it totally depends on getting the mentors to respect the young people... otherwise, what's the difference between this and any fine arts university? Or maybe I just wish old fogeys would get a chance to play too (or does that become impossible like the "you can never go back home" concept). What did you all think of Baryshnikov's quote?

Baryshnikov Hatches Grand Plan for a New Arts Center Wow. I find it a mindboggling proposal. It sounds almost like a conservatory for already proven masters. There was some interesting talk in the Dec 2 New Yorker about Group Think. I quote Malcolm Gladwell: He goes on to briefly discuss the various masters who have inspired one another, but it would be too much to quote here.Can trying to artificially structure such a group work just as well as those that come together of their own social accord? It seems like a big exciting gamble, sure to produce something of interest even if it fails it's loftiest ambitions. I'm dying to be in NYC to see the spinoffs! After the earlier worries about White Oaks termination, this is even better than preserving history.... Languishing in rural domesticity, Amy

Some of these are more humorous than others, but just to lengthen the list: The Elevator - Leigh Witchel Filling Station - Lew Christensen Western Symphony - Balanchine Surprise Symphony - James Clouser In A Nutshell - Gordon Peirce Schmidt The Scrapple Divertissements - Doug Elkins (on PA Ballet) But the modern people seem to have much more of sense of humor. I adore Brenda Daniels' humorous work in "Venus" & in her various collaborations with Jonathan Larson ("Garden Party", "More") So what's with ballet? Too serious to poke fun at itself? Humour goes out the window if you get too precise about technique? Either it's "line" or "humor" and never the twain shall meet?

The latest newsletter from Ballet-Tanz has this: I heard he's been in class in NYC lately. I hope White Oak returns from hiatus someday.

Because those aren't particularly important qualifications for attracting big money donations? I wonder, what are the demographics for patrons of the regional ballet company? If you have a "glamorous" male director, does he attract more money from that 20-1 ratio of students [now matured into patrons]? Do those "Mrs & Mr" donations really mean "Mrs" drove the donation? It seems like ballerinas rate high on the "glamour" scale, wouldn't they attract dollars from businessmen? Or are women notoriously poor negotiators when it comes to asking for money? Their salaries are usually less, perhaps it holds true in fundraising as well? Ahhh.... if only the artistic directors in the US could concentrate wholly on artistic direction decisions.... ~ Amy

Might I suggest that very many choreographers have muses but sometimes they become afraid of them? The power issue? Is the choreographer in charge? Will the muse overstep his/her role in the relationship? Will the muse become more important than the choreographer? I think many choreographers could mention a dancer or two that embody their choreographic intents more clearly and quickly than anyone else. But there is that ego issue, and I think for the creative juices to flow properly the choreographer must feel secure... Balanchine doesn't seem to have been too worried about that with his female dancers. [Although Gelsey Kirkland seemed to feel the door shut permanently on her when she left NYCB. And Farrell had a hard time of it when she married Mejia.] All the same, it seems like he had a different sort of relationship with his male muses. (I assume one can have a male muse?) Perhaps it is hard for dancers to be as giving as choreographers need them to be. And it must be unnerving for management to have dancers have that much power.

Might I suggest that very many choreographers have muses but sometimes they become afraid of them? The power issue? Is the choreographer in charge? Will the muse overstep his/her role in the relationship? Will the muse become more important than the choreographer? I think many choreographers could mention a dancer or two that embody their choreographic intents more clearly and quickly than anyone else. But there is that ego issue, and I think for the creative juices to flow properly the choreographer must feel secure... Balanchine doesn't seem to have been too worried about that with his female dancers. [Although Gelsey Kirkland seemed to feel the door shut permanently on her when she left NYCB. And Farrell had a hard time of it when she married Mejia.] All the same, it seems like he had a different sort of relationship with his male muses. (I assume one can have a male muse?) Perhaps it is hard for dancers to be as giving as choreographers need them to be. And it must be unnerving for management to have dancers have that much power.

I was under the impression that Balanchine made more of his masterpieces on Tallchief than on his other muses... Is this true? Anyone care to make a list?

I was under the impression that Balanchine made more of his masterpieces on Tallchief than on his other muses... Is this true? Anyone care to make a list?

I just got the following blurb from Ballet-Tanz' newsletter digest: Does anyone here know more about the subject? [Yes, of course I should subscribe to Ballet-Tanz and find out, but no, I probably won't in the next few days] However, I guess I should post this for those more diligent than I: Is he terminating White Oaks? Or just that dance history project of White Oaks? I'm very curious. I had so admired his initiative in trying to preserve dance by performing it. ~ Amy (feeling archaic not using a pseudonym)

"Da Ballet" : ages ago (1991? 1992?) Ballet Chicago did do that one... with a billboard. I thought it worked, but then the company did just keep shrinking & shrinking... so maybe not.

Thank you, rg... I think you are correct that I've confused the two versions. Particularly since I kept wondering if I was remembering Balanchine playing Coppelius... I was probably remembering Petit. Were they broadcast within a year or two of each other? I also believe that what I saw of the Petit Coppelia was an excerpt. Has Frederic Franklin's staging of Coppelia for ABT been taped? (At least for the archives?) Last I remember, ABT performances were only being archivally taped by unmanned camera... unlike NYCB which managed 2-camera archivals. Did the NYPL Dance Division tape it on ABT? Or did the rights/unions prevent this? Thank you Juliet, I'll consider taking my 4 year old in to see NYCB's if I can manage the drive. I still hope to some day get her to a dance performance that makes her eyes sparkle. (I tried a Nutcracker last year, but she thought the Sugarplum Fairy's variation the funniest thing she'd ever seen. Can't say it ever inspired deep belly laughs in me, but we all have different reactions to dance, don't we?).

rg, So you could see Coppelia behind the windows? We couldn't. Thanks for the description of the dolls.... our seats weren't very good so it wasn't so clear the nationality (although there definitely wasn't a scottish or spanish doll). From our seats it looked like the Coppelia was a mannequin as well. You say she didn't move either... (I can't say I care if it was a dancer or not) Estelle, the dolls didn't include a Spanish or Scottish doll? In the last production of this that I saw, staged by Basil Thompson on Ballet Chicago, there were: Chinese Doll, Soldier Doll, Moorish Doll, Spanish Doll & a Scottish Doll . The dances Coppelia/Swanhilda does after she's been "given life" refer to them. In the Shanghai production, some of the choreography remained of these dances but the dolls weren't there. I wonder why not? Did some one later come along and say "oh, there really ought to be a Scottish doll if She's going to do Scottish steps later?" or did someone forget to make a note of it in the Saint Leon archival material? There was a lot of interaction between Swanhilda & Franz that I missed in the first act... with Swanhilda teasing Franz & Franz trying to catch her. Much of it is so musical that it is hard to believe it wasn't there from the start. You can almost hear Swanhilda laughing at Franz in the music. Also in the Shanghai version, the part where the guys sort of rough up Dr. Coppelius was more of a formalized dance and was missing much of the humor. I can imagine how this got built up over the years and added on to, etc. but it was almost difficult to understand what was happening in the Shanghai version. I don't remember much of the 2 other Coppelias I've seen. One was NYCB's broadcast by PBS back in the 1970s or 80s of which I remember almost nothing except an image of Dr. Coppelius dancing with a rag-doll Coppelia at the end? I wonder if this is available on video yet. Before that, in the 70's or '60s, as a child I was taken to ABT's production. For some reason that elaborate linking of hands the girls do before sneaking into the workshop remains with me over all those years. Perhaps "elaborate" is not the right word. Dramatic? Comic? I guess I'd like to ask you, Estelle, if the Coppelia production you saw was very playful & comic? The Shanghai dancers were technically nice and the costumes were nice enough, but the drama and the humor were almost non existent. Again, I reiterate that they may be beautiful doing Les Sylphides.

My apologies for lack of details on this review... I have so little time right now that I shouldn't even be writing it, but this performance was such a low point that I felt people should be forewarned. I've heard it said that the only bad competion is poor quality productions. It's an idea I subscribe to. This company's presentation of it's production of Coppelia at Jorgensen Center for Performing Arts at the University of Connecticut was bad for ballet. I hate to think that this might be someone's first experience of ballet; they'd be disinclined to buy another ticket. The warning should have been the photo in Jorgensen's season brochure advertising the event. Although it was captioned Coppelia, Shanghai Ballet, it was a photo of Les Sylphides. But I thought it was the direction at Jorgensen's ignorance of dance that was at fault and bought 2 tickets anyway. After all, Coppelia is a ballet that could be carried by one good ballerina as Swanhilda and a decent actor of a Franz. It's a wonderful ballet to bring children to, a comedy with very dancing music. So I thought I'd bring my 4-year-old. The story is easy to follow. Not in this production! For one thing, the title character never appeared in Act 1. Oh, the choreography frequently referred to spot where Coppelia should have been sitting, reading her book, but there was nothing there. So Swanhilda & Franz try to get the attention of.... what... thin air? Perhaps something was wrong with the set in that theater. Jorgensen is ghastly for touring shows because it has no fly space... but I'm not sure they couldn't have figured something out. Certainly no announcement was made. But this production looked like no one involved had ever seen the ballet Coppelia before. Perhaps they got most of the steps from rumors? It was pretty clueless. I haven't Coppelia's choreography memorized, but much was missing all the same. And in the 2nd act, all the dolls were chinese... so when it was time for Swanhilda/Coppelia to do the Scottish dance and the Spanish dance, it was like a total non sequitur... I'm not sure anyone understood why suddenly she was handed a fan or what. We didn't stay to see what was missing in the 3rd Act. And the character dances in the first act were bizzare as well... something didn't translate cross-culterally here... in my experience, the emphasis on stamping the floor, etc is to underline the rebound away from it... here all the focus of the step went into the floor and died. It was a case of total misdirection. The dancers were technically within reason for a 1-night stand college tour... they had beautiful feet... looked like they'd been selected for body types from out of a very very large pool.... were all together en corps... but totally clueless. I wish it HAD been a production of Les Sylphides. The dancers looked like they had the goods to deliver a good production of that. Anyway. BE WARNED. Save your money for some chance to see a Frederic Franklin staging of this piece. Skip this company doing Coppelia.

I suppose this belongs in the links section, but it seemed like people interested in dance history would be the more likely audience: http://www.fulbright.org/cohen/appcall.htm Here's the press release I received: International Dance Council - CID - Conseil International de la Danse President's office grdance@hol.gr FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Jane L. Anderson (202) 331-1590 FULBRIGHT ASSOCIATION INVITES APPLICATIONS FOR COHEN AWARD FOR INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP ON DANCE WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 11, 2001) -- The Fulbright Association has issued a call for applications for the 2001 Selma Jeanne Cohen Fund for International Scholarship on Dance Award. The award will enable a dance scholar to present a major paper at the Fulbright Association's annual conference in November. The award recipient will be chosen in a competition to be advised by the founder of the fund, Dr. Selma Jeanne Cohen, preeminent dance historian and founding editor of the International Encyclopedia of Dance. Outstanding dance scholars are invited to apply for the award, which will fund the recipient's travel and expenses in conjunction with the Fulbright Association conference. The competition is open to all dance scholars. Proposal guidelines are available from the Fulbright Association and are posted on its web site at http://www.fulbright.org/. The inaugural Selma Jeanne Cohen Award was presented to Fulbright alumna Leslie Friedman. The award supported Dr. Friedman's lecture, "Expression in Dance," delivered at the Fulbright Association's annual conference Nov. 30 through Dec. 3, 2000 in Washington, D.C. Dr Friedman said, "I looked at how one culture might understand another culture and my idea of dance as a doorway for that understanding." Her paper was based on research conducted in India on Indian dance and aesthetics. The Fulbright Association is a private, non-profit organization that supports and promotes the Fulbright Program, an international educational and cultural exchange initiative created in 1946 by legislation sponsored by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas. There are now over 200,000 Fulbright alumni throughout the world. ######